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The Single UNIX &reg; Specification, Version 2<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group

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<h4><a name = "tag_000_000_134">&nbsp;</a>NAME</h4><blockquote>
batch - execute commands when the system load permits
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_135">&nbsp;</a>SYNOPSIS</h4><blockquote>
<pre><code>
<p>
<i>batch</i>
</code>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_136">&nbsp;</a>DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>batch</i>
utility reads commands to be executed at a later time.
It is the equivalent of the command:
<pre>
<code>
at -q b -m now
</code>
</pre>
where queue
b
is a special
<i><a href="at.html">at</a></i>
queue, specifically for batch jobs.
Batch jobs will be submitted to the batch queue with no
time constraints and run by the system using algorithms,
based on unspecified factors, that may vary with each
invocation of
<i>batch</i>.
<p>
Users are permitted to use
<i>batch</i>
if their name appears in the file
<b>/usr/lib/cron/at.allow</b>.
If that file does not exist, the file
<b>/usr/lib/cron/at.deny</b>.
is checked to determine if the user
should be denied access to
<i>batch</i>.
If neither file exists, only a process with the appropriate privileges is
allowed to
submit a job.
If only
<b>at.deny</b.
exists and is empty, global usage is permitted.
The
<b>at.allow</b>
and
<b>at.deny</b>
files consist of one user name per line.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_137">&nbsp;</a>OPTIONS</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_138">&nbsp;</a>OPERANDS</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_139">&nbsp;</a>STDIN</h4><blockquote>
The standard input must be
a text file consisting of commands acceptable to the
shell command language described in
<xref href=shell><a href="chap2.html#tag_001">
Shell Command Language
</a></xref>.
The standard input will only be used if no
<b>-f</b>&nbsp;<i>file</i>
option is specified.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_140">&nbsp;</a>INPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
The text files
<b>/usr/lib/cron/at.allow</b>
and
<b>/usr/lib/cron/at.deny</b>
contain user names, one per line, of users who are, respectively,
authorised or denied access to the
<i><a href="at.html">at</a></i>
and
<i>batch</i>
utilities.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_141">&nbsp;</a>ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</h4><blockquote>
The following environment variables affect the execution of
<i>batch</i>:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>LANG</i><dd>Provide a default value for the internationalisation variables
that are unset or null.
If
<i>LANG</i>
is unset or null, the corresponding value from the
implementation-dependent default locale will be used.
If any of the internationalisation variables contains an invalid setting, the
utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.

<dt><i>LC_ALL</i><dd>
If set to a non-empty string value,
override the values of all the other internationalisation variables.

<dt><i>LC_CTYPE</i><dd>
Determine the
locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as
characters (for example, single- as opposed to multi-byte characters
in arguments and input files).

<dt><i>LC_MESSAGES</i><dd>
Determine the locale that should be used to affect
the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error
and informative messages written to standard output.

<dt><i>LC_TIME</i><dd>
Determine the format and contents for date and time strings written by
<i>batch</i>.

<dt><i>NLSPATH</i><dd>
Determine the location of message catalogues
for the processing of
<i>LC_MESSAGES .
</i>
<dt><i>SHELL</i><dd>Determine the name
of a command interpreter to be used to invoke the at-job.
If the variable is unset or null,
<i><a href="sh.html">sh</a></i>
will be used.
If it is set to a value other than a name for
<i><a href="sh.html">sh</a></i>,
the implementation will do one of the following:
use that shell;
use
<i><a href="sh.html">sh</a></i>;
use the login shell from the user database;
any of the preceding accompanied by a
warning diagnostic about which was chosen.

<dt><i>TZ</i><dd>Determine the timezone.
The job will be submitted for execution at the
time specified by
<i>timespec</i>
or
<b>-t</b>&nbsp;<i>time</i>
relative to the timezone specified by the
<i>TZ</i>
variable.
If
<i>timespec</i>
specifies a timezone, it will override
<i>TZ .
</i>If
<i>timespec</i>
does not specify a timezone and
<i>TZ</i>
is unset or null, an unspecified default timezone will be used.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_142">&nbsp;</a>ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_143">&nbsp;</a>STDOUT</h4><blockquote>
When standard input is a terminal, prompts of unspecified
format for each line of the user input described in
the STDIN section may be written to standard output.
<p>
In the POSIX locale,
the following will be written to the standard output
for each job when jobs are listed in response to the
<b>-l</b>
option:
<code>
<p>
<tt>"%s\t%s\n"</tt>, <i>at_job_id</i>,
&lt;<i>date</i>&gt;
</code>
where
&lt;<i>date</i>&gt;
is equivalent in format to the output of:
<pre>
<code>
date +"%a %b %e %T %Y"
</code>
</pre>
<p>
The date and time written will be adjusted so
that they appear in the timezone of the user (as
determined by the
<i>TZ</i>
variable).
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_144">&nbsp;</a>STDERR</h4><blockquote>
The following will be written to standard error
when a job has been successfully submitted:
<p><code>
<tt>"job %s at %s\n"</tt>, <i>at_job_id</i>,
&lt;<i>date</i>&gt;
</code>
where
&lt;<i>date</i>&gt;
will have the same format as is described in the STDOUT section.
Neither this, nor warning messages concerning the selection
of the command interpreter, are considered a diagnostic
that changes the exit status.
<p>
Diagnostic messages, if any, are written to standard error.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_145">&nbsp;</a>OUTPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_146">&nbsp;</a>EXTENDED DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_147">&nbsp;</a>EXIT STATUS</h4><blockquote>
The following exit values are returned:
<dl compact>

<dt>0<dd>Successful completion.

<dt>&gt;0<dd>An error occurred.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_148">&nbsp;</a>CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS</h4><blockquote>
The job will not be scheduled.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_149">&nbsp;</a>APPLICATION USAGE</h4><blockquote>
It may be useful to redirect standard output within the specified commands.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_150">&nbsp;</a>EXAMPLES</h4><blockquote>
<ol>
<p>
<li>
This sequence can be used at a terminal:
<pre>
<code>
batch
sort &lt; file &gt;outfile
EOT
</code>
</pre>
<p>
<li>
This sequence, which demonstrates redirecting standard
error to a pipe, is useful in a command procedure (the sequence of
output redirection specifications is significant):
<pre>
<code>
batch &lt;&lt;!
diff file1 file2 2&gt;&amp;1 &gt;outfile | mailx mygroup
!
</code>
</pre>
<p>
</ol>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_151">&nbsp;</a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_000_000_152">&nbsp;</a>SEE ALSO</h4><blockquote>
<i><a href="at.html">at</a></i>.
</blockquote><hr size=2 noshade>
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Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group
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